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Trained Seals, Reading Instruction, and Educational Overlords · The Reading Instruction Show

• 0:01
  Greetings, this is the Reading Instruction Show.
• 0:03
  I'm your host, as always, Dr. Andy Johnson. Topic
• 0:07
  of today's presentation, train seals, reading
• 0:12
  instruction, and educational overlords. Let's
• 0:16
  talk about reflection. Effective teachers are
• 0:20
  reflective teachers. They think about what they're
• 0:24
  doing, what they did, and what they're going
• 0:28
  to do. Now there are two levels of reflection,
• 0:34
  surface level reflection and deep meaning reflection.
• 0:39
  Both are necessary, but one without the other
• 0:43
  is not sufficient. So let's look at surface level
• 0:48
  reflection. Surface level reflection focuses
• 0:52
  only on the lesson objective. How did I do today?
• 0:58
  Did I achieve my objective? Did students learn
• 1:02
  what I intended? Could I have done something
• 1:06
  differently? I, I, I. Surface level reflection
• 1:11
  focuses on your performance and how you might
• 1:15
  go about improving it. This level of reflection
• 1:19
  is based on the conception of teacher as trained
• 1:23
  seal. The goal is to get the trained seals to
• 1:27
  perform the right sort of tricks in the right
• 1:30
  sort of way so that all reading problems will
• 1:33
  go away. Arf! Using surface level reflection,
• 1:39
  the trained seal asks, did I perform my tricks
• 1:44
  the right way? Did I follow the directions with
• 1:49
  fidelity? But... Teachers are much more than
• 1:54
  trained seals performing tricks for fish. At
• 1:59
  least they once were. Deep meaning reflection
• 2:03
  focuses on four big questions. Number one, does
• 2:11
  my teaching align with what I know about human
• 2:15
  beings, human learning, and human development?
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  reflects the kind of things you'd learn in a
• 2:24
  good educational psychology course. Number two,
• 2:28
  what am I teaching and why? Is what I'm teaching
• 2:34
  necessary? Should I even be teaching it? Am I
• 2:38
  teaching it simply because it's required? Who
• 2:41
  made it required? Of what value is it? Should
• 2:45
  I instead be teaching something else? The third
• 2:50
  question, how am I teaching? Are the approaches
• 2:56
  and strategies being used aligned with what a
• 2:59
  body of research says is effective for most students?
• 3:04
  And is it effective for the students in front
• 3:08
  of me? And number four, does my teaching reflect
• 3:14
  my educational philosophy? And an educational
• 3:18
  philosophy commonly has three parts. First, what
• 3:21
  do you believe to be the purpose of education
• 3:24
  in a democratic society? In other words, why
• 3:28
  do we educate our children? Of what worth is
• 3:32
  it to both the individual and our human communities?
• 3:36
  Second, what's the desire to end a state? And
• 3:41
  third, what are some objectives for attaining
• 3:44
  this end? These questions don't get asked nearly
• 3:49
  enough. What's wrong with you? The overlord asked
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  me angrily. We can't have teachers running around
• 4:00
  thinking whatever they want to think. Why not,
• 4:03
  I asked. Because there'd be chaos, he shouted.
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  Chaos and pretty soon teachers would be doing
• 4:12
  all sorts of things. all sorts of things, even
• 4:16
  creative things. And he shuddered. Yes, I replied,
• 4:21
  that's the purpose. Teachers would be designing
• 4:25
  learning experiences based on their students'
• 4:29
  needs and interests. They'd be using their professional
• 4:33
  knowledge and experience. Nonsense, he said,
• 4:38
  pounding the desk. Nonsense. We know what's best
• 4:43
  for teachers. We know what teachers need. We
• 4:49
  know what's best for their students. But you
• 4:53
  don't even know their students, I pointed out.
• 4:56
  Oh, this infuriated the overlord. Guards, he
• 5:00
  shouted, guards. Two men and a woman all wearing
• 5:05
  identical brown suits ran into the room. The
• 5:09
  overlord pointed at me. Take this man out and
• 5:13
  cut off his head, he shouted. The suits looked
• 5:18
  at each other. One of them finally spoke timidly,
• 5:22
  cut off his head, sir. You heard me, the overlord
• 5:27
  said. Get a big sword, take him outside and then
• 5:32
  cut off his head. It's not that complicated.
• 5:36
  There was more silence. Well. The overlord demanded
• 5:41
  impatiently. What are you waiting for? One of
• 5:46
  them spoke up. Last year, sir, the board made
• 5:50
  a policy about the head thing, sir. Remember?
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  A policy, you say? Yes, your lordship. It was
• 6:00
  making a mess on the carpets. Damn, he said.
• 6:04
  That's right. Well, what can I do? You could
• 6:09
  debunk him, sir? Oh, very well, he said impatiently.
• 6:14
  He fluttered his hand at me and said, in the
• 6:17
  name of lexia learning, I hereby debunk you.
• 6:21
  Now get him out of here. I've got puppies to
• 6:24
  kick and Barbie dolls to shoot. And the three
• 6:28
  suits grabbed me, took me down to the lobby and
• 6:32
  roughly threw me out of corporate headquarters.
• 6:35
  And I sat on the ground. all debunked up.